April 9, 2012

Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the sunny, breezy, cool island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this Monday morning, the ninth day of April, 2012, another beautiful spring day on Cape, as we say farewell to Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes”, the original veteran of that venerable decades long news magazine, who passed away at the age of 93 on Sunday, leaving the world a legacy that will always endear him to most professionals in the media and those he interviewed, not to mention his world wide audience–a true American original’. Mr. Wallace owned a home on Martha’s Vineyard, only six nautical miles from where I write this daily blog, and I once had the honor of serving him dinner at the Edgartown Yacht club, a club I worked at after graduating from UVM in 1987, serving him Swordfish in the quaint town on the ‘Vineyard’ of the same name. Since I was only three when he began his career at 60 Minutes, I don’t recall the interviews from that turbulent year of 1968, but do remember that famous stop watch all through my formative days, popping up every Sunday night, as my parent’s watched as religiously as we attended Catholic Mass every week. His no nonsense reporting style, aimed at always getting at the TRUTH, brought him both fame and notoriety, the latter mostly for his ‘gotcha interviews’, hidden camera and all, as he knocked on doors of shady businessmen and politicians alike, ’sweetly’ stating, “…hi, this is Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, could we come in and have a chat?” To wit the response was always of a colorful variety of words and gestures not normally seen at that seven p.m. ’sacred’ hour on a lazy Sunday evening… He will be missed and all of US here at seacapecod.net wish him a free press pass through the Pearly Gates, and peace and joy to his family in the coming years, for his work inspired me to do what I do NOW and I KNOW that I am not alone. God’s speed Mike, and when you get up there, put in a good word for all of US down here, we could use a break from all that hate, violence and senseless greed! Have a nice day everybody and a quick hats off to the new “Master’s” champion, from the great state of Florida, Bubba Watson, who won our hearts with that desperate shot out of the deep rough in a sudden death play off, a shot you have to love even if you are not a golfer, as this moment in the game of KINGS was one for the books–real emotions spilling out onto those green grasses of Augusta National, tethered by the Augusta flowering trees and white pines, leaving US all just a little more HUMAN. PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M